Week #59 - Muret

Momamillian!

1. first district meeting was really FUN.  Zone leaders were there for it, too, so that was a good time.  It's a good thing I'm best friends with the ZLs, otherwise it would have been reeeeeaaaaallly stressful.  But basically I just spent the first half of my weeks studies on preparing for district meeting.

5.  We have not had a primary program in this ward yet, hopefull soon!  There was a child's baptism yesterday, though, and the primary sang at the end and that was adorable.

I've never even heard of Alexander and the Terrible Horrible Very Bad No Good Day.  What was that about?

I got the halloween package!  Thunks :) So what they do is when you send it, they send a text warning us that it's coming, and then we get it a few days later.  It was awesome.  I still love that selfie picture of you guys :)

So, our cool cyber cafe is down for repairs right now, so we're in this really dinky one, and the USB ports don't always work, so I'm not sure I can send photos yet.  We will see.

Okay it worked :)

Also, I thought of more things for the christmas package :)  I thought of RUNTS, and also blueberry muffin mix, like, that betty crocker stuff.  Mmmmmm Mmmmm Mmmmmmm.

So this week!

Lundi was really fun, because we got to do an FHE with our bishop and his famille.  They wanted Elder Haskin to teach the restoration all by himself, so that was fun.  In the mean time, we tried to control their wild children, more wild than any children you have ever seen.  It was really fun.  At the end, we invited them to pray again about the truth of the LdM, and to write their testimonies in a LdM after doing so, and to think of someone they could share it with.  So we'll be doing some suivi on that bientôt.

The next day was neat.  We got out to Auterive to pass by some members, and were able to see two of them!  One of them we had a nice little chat, and learned that he's been trying to do some missionary work with some pals, and we offered our help, and he accepted.  We also learned his really really cool conversion story.  This same day, I challenged the elders in Concorde to text us everytime they saw a miracle, and we would do the same.  Then we challenged each other to reach a total of 40 miracles seen.  We ended up with 51 miracles/blessings seen that day, and they were really cool.  It was an awesome day.  I decided that had we gone through the day, written down the numbers at the end and looked back, it would have been a really lame day.  But because of this miracle searching, it was such a cool day.  Yeah.

The next day I was in Toulouse on exchange.  We were able to teach two of their amis, both new, both awesome.  One of them came up to those guys and said "hey, I don't want to take to much of your time, but I'm looking for a church, and I over heard you talking to someone else, and I think it's yours" and so that was neat.  The other guy was just a normal contact, and now he has a baptismal date.  Miracles are being seen.  Also, Elder Rellaford and I ate an entire loaf of bread for dinner and then took pictures with light sabers.

After that was DISTRICT MEETING.  That was a really good time.  We talked about unity, and the Spirit was there to guide us to know how we can work better together.  Sweet.  Then afterwards I was on exchange AGAIN in Toulouse, this time with the Zone Leaders, and that was so much fun.  AND.  In Muret, miracles were seen that day, too.  This lady came up to us a while ago asking if we were the Freres Mormons, and we said yeah, exchanged info, and ladida.  So we fixed a rdv with her, she lives FOREVER away, and so that was fun for them.  They learned that she has been meeting with missionnaires for a really long time, and even had the entire works of the LDS church, not just the LdM, and already has a testimony about all that.  That was super neat.  So, the next time we see her, we're gonna probably invite her to be baptized.  She had lost contact with the missionnaires for a while because she moved.  Anyway, back in Toulouse, we found a member's home deep in centre ville, and he hadn't had the missionaires chez lui for a really long time, if ever, and he was very touched by our visit.  Good times.

The next day was pretty lame.  We switched back off, we were supposed to have a rdv in Auterive again, but that didn't go through.  So, while we were waiting, I decided it was time to text everyone in the phone that I'd never heard of and invite them to an activity.  From this texting binge, I received a bunch of "who is this?" texts in return, along with a bunch of "not tonight, but next time!" so that made it worth it.  Some people even called back and asked when the next activity was or if we could see each other another time.  So that was so fun.  We were just sitting there and getting texts for like an hour and a half straight.  Then the activity that night was really fun, I had an eating competition with a recent convert, we ate an entire bag of potato chips together, and then had a popcorn competition, too.  I totally won both, but if you ask Mary-Jane, she would say I cheated.  I didn't.

After that, we have samedi.  We had planned to go out to this distant city and knock all the doors, because it was a really small city, but by the time we got out there, we realized that if we wanted to make it home on time, we'd have to leave right away.  So.  eh.  It was a really, really long walk, and we made it home safely.  Luckily it wasn't a total waste of time, because we talked to some real neatos on the way there, and also fixed a rdv with an old guy we used to see all the time but haven't seen for a while to play pétanque with him.  So I'm excited.  We'll see how that goes.

The next day was chooorch.  The metro line was broken in the morning, so we had to walk from the train station to the church, which wasn't too bad, but it's still so HOT.  It's october and it's just HOT.  But not as hot as it used to be, so that's alright.  Afterwards there was the baptism, all went well, and they showed the Joseph Smith movie from the 1960s or whatever, and it was so fun.  I'd seen it before, but it's still hilarious and really great.

Anyway, yes, we are allowed to watch the Mormon messages.  I love them.  I love the one about the guy with the video in Goblin Valley.  That one is sweet.  There's another one, you might've watched it, about not looking at what we haven't done and looking rather at what we were able to accomplish.  That one was sweet.  There's this part where the mom forgets to turn on the oven and says "shoot shoot shoot" and it made me think of you :)  But that one's really good, because, like, what happened on mardi, when we looked back on the all the miracles we saw and not looking at all the lessons we didn't have or baptisms or whatnot, life was that much better.  Very cool.

" love you, I love you, I LOVE YOU" - Buddy the Elf

I love you,

Elder Max Liechty

Week #58 - Muret

Mom!

For a second there, I thought you were french! Woooowwwiieeee

1.  The first district meeting is this thursday, so, I'll let you know how that goes.  So no, I haven't had to teach a lesson in a DL meeting yet.  But soon!

2.  Right now, yeah, still planning on BYU.  I'll make sure I tell Nate he's made a mistake :)  But seriously, though.  I've been thinking about it a lot, and I think my plan is gonna stick with BYU.

3.  ... No response.  But, with you, I'm pretty sure it's the end of July.  "And that's all I have to say about that" - Forest Gump (I was wondering if he knew when he'd be coming home so I could make school plans)

So much marriage.  'Tis the season? Heh heh, yeeaaaaahhhhhhh.

I know that road, because that's where Jacen, Bobby and I went van camping that one time.  But I never went up those rocks.  Went up some other rocks some other time, so I know what you mean when you say it's no fun :)

If you're really gonna miss LP marching band, you should sign up for director or something.  That would be really fun

QUICK QUESTIONS.

what are some thanksgiving songs?  They put me in charge of translating thanksgiving songs for an activity, and then I realized that I don't know any, except Thankful by Josh Groban.  So.  Could you please send me some and the lyrics? (does anyone know any Thanksgiving songs?!?)

Also, I saw an ad for a new Danny Radcilffe movie called Horns.  WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT IT.  It basically looks like a younger version of Hellboy.

Mom check out this week, it was a neat one.

It started out with us on lundi.  We did street boarding as a district, and it was really fun.  It always starts out kind of slow, and I'm not really looking forward to contacting people for two hours straight in the same place, but it's always really cool.  We talked to this guy who looked like Johnny Depp, and he was pretty neat.  Talking to people that long always reminds me the importance of making each contact personal, and just opening your mouth and letting the Lord fill it, because otherwise you're saying the same thing to people for two hours and it gets really boring and most of the time people say no.  So I always end up liking street boarding :)

The next day we were able to see Sylvie, the first time since she was baptized since she was with her mother for the last little bit.  Still a member!  Still active! :)  We talked about all the blessings we have seen thanks to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  Then, after that, we went down to Foix to see our friend Dayana.  She ended up being in this rdv for longer than she had planned, so we talked to the people in the streets.  We met this really neat guy, who was very very friendly and we had a nice long discussion with him.  He asked me to friend him on facebook, too, so, we'll get around to that.  But he's in between Paris and Algeria all the time, only in Foix to visit his bro, so we got his number and gave him ours and that is it.  He also invited me to come to his house any time in Algeria when I can.  So.  Then later, our train was an hour and a half en retard, so we ended up having to sleep in Toulouse because we missed the connecting train to Muret.  That was a good time.

Then we woke up nice n early to get back to Muret on time.  Then we went on exchange, I stayed in Muret with Elder Andersen's bleu, Elder Player.  He's from Alaska :)  We got to see Jerome, and that was fun.  Talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ. He seems more interested in talking than learning, so we'll see where this goes in the future.  After that we went searching after the home of this referral we had, and it was really confusing, because there was construction being done on his appartment complex, and we couldn't find his place.  So we rang this one door, and the lady who answered somehow knew everything about this guy and exactly where he lived.  So.  It was kind of startling and funny, but we found his home!  And apparantly he hasn't been there for the past couple weeks and no one knows when he's coming back, so...we'll try calling him :)

The next day we were out in Auterive to pass the less active members we weren't able to see before.  We did lots of walking to find their homes, with not too much success.  But on the way home we talked with the bus driver the whole time, about a half hour, and he was really cool, very nice.  And it's the same guy every time, so, we've got some kind of ins with him now.

Then we were supposed to have a rdv in Foix the next day, so we went out, but, it didn't end up going through, and that was a bummer.  So we were out there, talked to strangers, and then it was back on home to eat dinner with our friends André and Charlotte.  They made this delicious meal, and that was so dang nice.  They told us they aren't too interested in learning about the church and applying it's teachings, moreso just meeting the members and seeing how they live.  So.  Well.  We'll probably see what we can do about that :)

Then samedi we were supposed to visit another less active member in a ville a little distance away, but she called us before saying she couldn't.  But at least she was thoughtful enough to call!  Sometimes they don't call and we show up and there's nobody.  We refixed for another day.  So next on our list was to walk really far away to these other amis house from Ethiopia and give them their BoM in amharic, and when we got there, she was on the phone with another ethiopian friend who lives in Aix-en-Provence, which is in our mission, and she wants one in amharic, as well.  So that was a cool little miracle as far as timing goes n stuff.  Then we got to see our dear Frère Déjean, still doing very well, loves the missionaries, and probably loves the church more than anyone in the world.

Sunday was cool, too.  Unfortunately, none of our amis were able to make it ... but the Déj was there, and he was happy out of his mind, that was cool.  The talks were also really neat, and were about love n stuff.  Overall, it was just a really good sacrament meeting.  I made it a goal to really really prepare myself for the sacrament, and so that helped a lot.  It was something our seminary teacher challenged us to do a few years ago, and I applied it once, and it was cool, and that was it.  Did it again, still just as cool, so I'm probably gonna try to do it more often.  So.  Yup.

It was a real interesting week.  We worked pretty hard, had some good times, and fixed some stellar goals for next week.  Looks like all you guys do is have fun, so that's nice :)  I tried mind photoshopping my face into the photos to feel a little more loved, and it worked alright :)

I LOVE YOU ALL

Love,

Elder Max Liechty

And some from his letter to kent:

Dad!

One day, sam is going to find a lake and catch all the fish in it, if he perseveres.  That's the message of the gospel, there!  But also maybe he doesn't quite have the wrist movements down?  Maybe there's a training video you can show him.

Dad.  I can't find the raincoat.  I know this is the worst news I probably could have brought you, but, I have to tell you.  I was looking for it, and I can't find it.  It must be in the mystical void where is hiding my umbrella and the rest of my Altoids.  But I'm sorry dad!  I tried to take care of it, I even mourned over it when I thought I lost it!  And now I've truly lost it!  I'm the worst son.  Forgiiiiiiive me.  I'll even buy you a new one if that's what it takes!

I've been focusing a lot on more sincere prayers this week, too.  Nightly prayers where normally a quick one on my knees, in bed, and then after laying down in bed I would continue to kind of have a prayer in my mind until I fell asleep.  But I've started trying to do it out of bed at night (I do it in the morning for sure, because if not, I would go straight back to sleep!), and it's really cool.  My knees might hurt a little more because these french apartments don't have carpet, but my prayers have felt a lot more sincere, and I've really thought more about what it means to pray, and how awesome a privelege...privilidge...privelidge................it is.  It's a blessing!

Thanks dad, keep being the best dad,

Week # 57 - Muret

Momma momma momma momma momma

This was a good week. We did lots of things and had lots of fun.  And Elder Haskin is doing great.  He speaks way better french than I did when I left the MTC, so he's gonna go places.  It's lots of fun, but it's also pretty difficult having all the responsibility loaded on you at once.  Like, I can't have him make half the phone calls, I have to make almost all of them!  You remember how much I dislike phone calling!

But I'm not too stressed.  Just taking it as it comes and also praying a lot.

I read Trevor's email :) hehe heheh that's a good time. (Trevor Shaffer had a greenie in the Philippines and his experience is WAY different than Max's greenie:)

Mom.  I cook all the meals.  I just taught Elder Haskin how to cook shrimp and rice.  I haven't learned how to make any amazing extravagant meals, but, eh, maybe some day.  We just don't have lots of tiiiiiiime to cook cool stuff.

No, we don't have many dinner appts :)  I've had a few on my mission, like in Gex almost every day, but not for the last little while.  But, eh.

So, was that an inspired question or what?  HOW DID HE DO IT.  was it cool or was it lame?  Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeez. (Zach asked Katie to marry him last week!)

You going to Capitol reef makes me think of me visiting Capitole Place here in Toulouse.  In France.

So anyway, check out this week:

It started out with some cool miracles including missing trains and trams and going wrong ways and whatnot for whatever reason, because I can make it around Muret and Toulouse blindfolded these days.  But anyway, we went on the wrong metro line, but met this neat guy who shared his Mentos with us.  That was about it.  But it made me happy anyway :)

Mardi was a very cool day.  We had planned to go to a distant ville called Foix, and as the lady was handing us the tickets, we watched the train roll away.  noooooooooooooooo.  So we made do, and caught a bus to another train stop to take the next train.  So the bus dropped us off about 20 minutes from the train station, and the train was leaving in about 15.  So.  We ran.  it was Elder Haskin's first time running in church clothes, and it was not easy.  But we caught the train!  and then we went to Foix.  We were planning on passing a bunch of less actives out there, but then we saw too many miracles and didn't have enough time.  But we got a lesson with this young adult woman from New Caledonia, who is going to come to church next week and also wants to show us the castle in Foix, which is a SICK castle.  It's one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen.  When I saw it, I was just so blown away and happy that talking to strangers was that much easier and we met some amazing people.  Then, on the way home, we met this legendary member who works on the trains, and whenever he meets the missionnaries, he takes them up to first class and chats with them.  He started it out by saying, in english, "Where are you going?  Do you know Joseph Smith?  Do you know Thomas S. Monson?  Do you know Elder Tihopu?"  and the answer was yes to all of that (Elder Tihopu is in our mission).  So that was sweet, and the first class seats where very comfy.

Mercredi was just as cool.  We went out to Auterive, again with the goal to pass less actives, and then we met this guy and had a lesson with him instead.  Then fixed a RDV for that weekend.  He had some really weird ideas and conspiracy theories, but when we talked about God and Jesus Christ he normaled up a little and we had a pretty good conversation.  Then we visited one member famille we had planned on seeing, but only had a short time with them, and they had some friends coming over, too.  The friends came over while we were there, and we got to meet them, so that was really neat.  Yes.

Then Jeudi we got to see Jean Marc and Séverine, as well as had our zone training in the morning.  It was probs the coolest one we've had yet, and the Spirit was super strong.  When we went to Jean-Marc's, we started out by helping him plant some plants around the edge of their house.  That was a good time.  Then during the RDV, we found out that their daughter, Coralie, had read out of her BoM comic book, and that she liked it.  That was cool.  But that was about all we got.  It's going pretty slow with them, but they have so much potential that we don't want to stop.  We'll see.  We've seen that when we go with the Ducrocqs, their famille-in-law, the rdvs are a lot more focused, and the Ducrocqs just got called as ward missionnaires, so they're pumped to do more work with us.  Sweeeet.

Vendredi was pretty slow.  We did our weekly planning, and were supposed to meet up with Frère Déjean to take him to a baptism that day, but he wasn't able to make it.  Bummmmmer.  Then there was fhe that night, it was fun, but not too many people showed up.  Slow day, but, eh, we got some stuff done, so that's aight.

Samedi was fun.  We went to lunch with Frère Déjean and his pal Jean Claude.  When JC was out smoking, the Déj told us his concern for JC and his health because he drinks too much and smokes too much. He said he is someone that merits spiritual paradise with how nice he is, but that he's afraid for his health n stuff.  We read the story about Zeezrom and how even the worst can change, and all it takes is simple testifying of Jesus Christ and His Atonement.  He was touched and said he would do it.  Then that evening we got to see our friend from Auterive again.  We sat down and drank a coke with him, talked about spiritual stuff, it was good.  He likes talking about weird conspiracies n whatnot, but we did our best to keep it under control.  We challenged him to read 3 Nephi 11, and he said he wanted more to read, so he'll do 3 Nephi 11-26, the whole story of Jesus' stay.  So that was cool.

Then we got dimanche.  church was great.  We were supposed to have some amis come, but we called them before to make sure, and she was feeling really sick, so she couldn't come.  But we should have a rdv with them this coming week, so, uh, pray for the please!  They're really cool, and from Ethiopia.  And we totes found a bunch of ethiopian supplies that we can give them, so that's cool.  Other than that, church was sweet.  Everyone seemed really happy this week, so there was a really neat spirit there.  Yeah.

Then we're today.  Voila.  It was a really good week, sweet and awesome towards the beginning, slowed down a little at the end, but I'm picturing this next week and being pretty dang cool.  Should see lots of miracles, as usual!

I Looooooooooove you all

Elder Max Liechty

Château de Foix

Capitole Place

Week #56 - Muret with a new greenie!

Max and his new "son" :)

I'm guessing Lyon

Wassup wasssssuuuuuppp?

Mom!

How big is the marching band this year?  Still 3A?  And you'll have to record all of their performances and keep the best so I can watch it afterwards, because I loooooooove that music.

So this will probably be a real little email, because I spent more than half of this week in Lyon learning how to be a good father and all the keys to raising a good son, things which you cleeaaarrly already know, because you raised the best sons and a pretty good daughter, too :)  I'M KIDDING CAITLYN.

Lundi was straight off to Lyon in the morning, passing throught Montpellier...Wait.  I already told you this.

So MARDI, after I had emailed you, we did some training for the trainers.  I think.  This whole week was a blur and lots of training and traveling and sleeping in an apartment with, like, a thousand beds, smelling like a stinky locker room and feet because of the 25 unshowered bleus that arrived at midnight!  It was funny, because their plane was delayed, so they missed the corresponding plane, and the next one landed them in Lyon at midnight.  Heh heh.  So they all dragged themselves in at night, tired as bums, smelling worse, having not showered for more than, like, 40 hours at least, and that was that.

All I remember from Lyon was that we did some contacting in the streets to fill time because we were so behind because of the plane delay, and we met some neat guys.  One guy I was talking to seemed really cool, and we were having a pretty nice conversation, until this weirdo came up and started interrupting and asking questions about why I was mormon and not JW.  I later learned that he wasn't JW, either, but he was actually curious why I was mormon and what we had that the others didn't.  So I told him.  Half way through, the cool guy left, and I was stuck with Eavsdroppin' Earl.  At first I was bummed that cool guy was gone, but the new guy was actually pretty neat, too.  We were talking about the Godhead n stuff, and he wanted to make sure that I believed they were three separate beings.  I showed him Jesus' baptism as proof that it makes sense, and his mind was BLOWN.  More blown than any mind I've ever seen, and I was like, "buddy, that's first grade!"  But that was cool to see something click in his mind like that.  At the end of the convo, he handed me all the JW stuff and said he didn't need it anymore and took all our pamphlets and a LdM.  That was neat.

We met our bleus on jeudi, I believe, and that was super cool.  I got the coolest one.  His name is Elder Haskin.  Born in Minnesota, but lived in Georgia for the past little bit.  Everyone I've met from Georgia on my mission so far has not been in the same stake as Cumming, so no one knows Bruce or Karen!  Anyway, he's beautiful, and I'm so excited for this transfer.

So we got back from Lyon on vendredi, and I made a bunch of phone calls telling people sorry we were out of town foreeeevvveeer and couldn't see them.  That evening was FHE, and we had the two bleus in our district teach it to practice french!  And they did perfectly.  They speak like natives, those dogs.  And on the way home, these two people sat just accross from us, and said "WOW how welled dressed they are" and then we joked about it being friday night, gotta have the class, and then they were the coolest people I've ever talked to on the train.  So that was a good time.

The next day we got to visit Frère Déjean, and that was fun.  He has a reeeeaaallly heavy southern accent, not at all easy to understand.  But having been with him for three months, I'm starting to arrive at understanding.  But Elder Haskin!  Oh boy.  No idea what was going on.  He got a lot of it, but Frère Déjean likes to talk about his health problems, and uses medical terms, and when he started doing that, no one was following.  Then it was conference!  I'm always afraid that there is no way conference could be better than last time, but, it always is.  My favorite part was when Dieter F. Uchtdorf said "Mind boggling."  Heh heh, yeah.  Gotcha.  It was especially funny, because when we were in the car after the implosion of that building in Ames, you asked dad how the germans would say it, and Elder Uchtdorf said it just like daddio.

Dimanche was also straight conference.  Such good times.  I think one of my favorite talks was Lynn G. Robins when he talked about "remember which way you face," that was on saturday.  So was Uchtdorf.  After three sessions of conference on sunday (we do priesthood, saturday afternoon, and sunday morning), I was pretty much shot, so I really really enjoyed the talks, but I could not for the life of me take any notes.  But they were, as far as I remember, just straight testimonies of Jesus Christ and the living prophet.  Sweet.

So, as a DL, all I do is call people on sunday night and see how they're doing and also I'm suppoooooosed to inspire them and be a good example.  We're having a meeting tonight to set goals as a district for this transfer, and, eh, that's all I know.  I should be getting a list soon of things I'm supposed to be doing, so I'll let you know IF I get that.

I THOUGHT OF STUFF FOR THE CHRISTMAS PACKAGE.

A 2015 calendar, preferably something waaaaaaaaay cool, and then some, like, shark stuff.  Aaawww yeah.  That's all I thought of.  So.....if I think of some, I'll let you know again :)

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH.

And these are all the pictures I have this week, sorry, they're lame, I'll get a better father son photo soon for you.

LOVE,

Elder Max Liechty